


your secret’s safe with me

by Tsume_Yuki



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rigel Black Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Rigel Black Exchange, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26146048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsume_Yuki/pseuds/Tsume_Yuki
Summary: Leo has a secret on his skin.
Relationships: Lionel Hurst/Harriet Potter | Rigel Black
Comments: 34
Kudos: 271
Collections: Rigel Black Exchange Round 2





	your secret’s safe with me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rimenorreason](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rimenorreason/gifts).



> I took your soulmate idea but slapped it on the Leo for my gift.

‘ _I am Harry Potter_ ’

Just short of a hundred years ago, an Unspeakable managed to transport herself back in time by five-hundred years. This had untold consequences, the least of which was writing no less than twenty-five people out of reality, reducing their status to that of unborn. Tuesday lasted for two and a half days, while Thursday filled up a grand total of four hours.

These outcomes weren’t the only thing to come about as a result of this temporal displacement. 

Ever since that mishap, every person in the world has had a phrase written out on the inside of their forearm. Which arm it is alternates, and the muggles are under the impression that these words have always been present throughout history, but were simply hidden from their written records.

Only the witches and wizards remember that this was not always the case. 

In the first decade since they appeared, it quickly became clear that these words upon a magical’s arm linked them to another person. It didn’t take long until many were beginning to call those linked together soulmates.

And yet, it is not the name of the other person that appears on someone’s arm, nor is it the first words they will say to one another.

Instead, the phrase can change, alternating again and again as time passes. 

No, what is written on the flesh is instead the other’s greatest secret. This is why it is fluid, this is why it changes, metamorphoses as the person it represents does. 

Lionel Hurst has had a soulmark since he was seven.

The whole thing is subjective, all dependent on how old the other end of the bond is, when they begin to cognitively process situations enough to recognise what a secret is, how great their skills with language is.

At the very least, his soulmate is English, or speaks the language (they could, after all, be from one of the numerous countries that house English speakers). 

The words are printed upon his skin in the same crisp lettering as everyone else’s, the same letter formation that every other person in the world boasts.   
  


‘ _Broke vase_ ’

Bless his Ma. Thanks to her, Leo has photographs of almost all of his soulmark changes, from that first shaky attempt at a secret to the most recent. He doesn’t doubt the kid’s parents uncovered the secret; a broken vase isn’t exactly easy to ignore. 

He also knows his soulmate is younger than him, probably by about four to three years given the state of that first soulmark when he’d been seven. It’s also interesting to see their development through the secrets they keep. 

‘ _Had too many cookies’  
_

_‘Mama’s present is a necklace’_

There’s one when he’s about ten that’s a bit of a worry though.

‘ _My magic scared Archie. It scares me_ ’  
  


No one should ever be scared of their magic.

No one deserves to be scared of such an intrinsic part of themselves.   
  


It does, however, give him a name to research.

The only Archie he finds on the Ministry published register is forty-eight years old and has been happily married for longer than Leo’s been alive.

So, a nickname then.

He’ll have to ask Rispah to keep an ear out in the Alleys for anyone with the nickname.

The chances of stumbling upon his other is minuscule that way, but he can only try.

The words change again and again, different phrases that mean little and don’t hold many clues as to who is on the other end.

Leo goes through his own days wondering just what is on his other’s arm.

What is his biggest secret?

Is it that he doesn’t plan to become a Potion Master like his Da wants?

Is it that he’s hiding the true extent of what the Lower Alleys are like?

Is it that he’s practicing free duelling (and that he’s bloody good at it)? 

Is his secret the ambition that he hasn’t dared to breathe aloud yet? 

Leo continues to work, to grind at free-duelling and encouraging his magic to work alongside him, to work together and keep building them to greater and greater heights. 

Then, the secret changes.

It changes and Leo can only boggle are the sight of it. 

_‘I am Harry Potter._ ’

How... how can that be a secret?

And yet, how could it not be?

Harry Potter is clearly hiding his identity for some reason, though why, Leo can not possibly begin to guess.

What would prompt someone to hide their name and gender?

The answer is obvious. 

Because they’re hiding who they are to such an extent that it has become their biggest secret. 

Leo flicks through the Book of Gold, the Potter name clawing at the back of his head and, yes, there is something he’s missing here.

Oh, his other is clearly getting themselves neck deep in trouble (Ma will either be thrilled or horrified that his other seems to be as much trouble as he is).

But, what type of trouble?

They’re posing as someone else.

The secret on his arm hasn’t changed in the past week and Leo doubts it will for a long while. This seems like a long haul kind of secret. The kind that needs to be buried deep, unmarked grave style. 

The kind that gets you in deep shit with the law kind of secret.

It’s why Leo’s taken to glamouring his arm. Not blank, because that’s suspicious.  
Instead, it’s a simple ‘ _I cheated on the potions test_ ’.

(Someday, he’ll look back on that glamour and laugh at the irony of it all)

Stopping on the seventh page of Ps, Leo flicks down the list of names, only to freeze.

So... Harry’s a nickname then.

‘ _Harriet Potter, firstborn daughter of James Fleamont Potter and Lily Ann Evans. Born 31st of July, 1960_ ’

The Heiress to the Potter name. And her greatest secret is her identity...

What an interesting secret.

He’s going to have to do something radical to gain one of his own.   
  


They have to match, after all.   
  


He needs a great secret of his own to match Harry Potter’s daring words.

  
Needs to come up with something sensational.

Something like becoming the Rogue.


End file.
